Thursday, October 19, 2006

Q & A With Kids....

Two days ago, I saw this billboard about the National’s Space Program in the city. On that billboard, Raidi saw this astronaut wearing a full space suit carrying an oxygen back pack.

Immediately Raidi asked me this question. “Bah, kenapa dekat space tak ada oksigen??”. I thought very hard to come out with an answer so that he could easily understand and absorb. I paused for awhile, scratched my head and he suddenly came up with an answer. “Sebab dekat space tak ada pokok ke Bah?” Perrghhhhhh…bijaaakk bijaakkk (TO THOSE WHO STILL DOESN’NT KNOW THIS, PART OF THIS PLANET’S ECO-SYSTEM, TO SUSTAIN LIFE, PLANTS PRODUCES OXYGEN FOR US TO BREATHE). “Yup Raidi, that is partly correct, infact an astronaut carries an oxygen tank for life support”. “Habis dalam beg dia tu ada pokok ke bah??” Peerghhhhh.. Susah nak jawab Raidi! Blurr kejap bapak ko dibuatnya! Below are some of the challenging questions that Raidi had asked me before:

1. “Kenapa Bulan ikut kita mana-mana kita pergi?”
2. “Kenapa pokok warna hijau?”
3. “Nak pergi bulan naik roket ye Bah? Kenapa?”
4. “Kenapa Anakyn Skywalker punya R2-D2 colour biru?”
5. “Yoda tu dah tua ye Bah? Dia berapa tahun? Kenapa dia mati?”
6. “Abah umur berapa tahun nanti dah tua?”
7. “Nanti Abah dah tua nanti siapa nak hantar saya pergi sekolah?”

Raidi is at the age when kids have tons of questions to satisfy their curiosity. He’s very perceptive. It’s quite challenging because they ask honest questions and we’ve got to make the answers as simple and logical as possible. When we talk to these kids, we’ve got to scale down our mentality just to be in the same wavelength. Sometimes, I felt very surprised by their level of maturity and understanding. I noticed that all the kids that I met today have strong mental ability. They are good at anything that they do. I’m sure you have noticed this too.
I feel that the era of great thinkers, innovators and inventors are upon us. The era when we saw Muslim Scholars excelled in Science, Philosophy and Literature. An era of great inventors with the likes of Wright Brothers whom invented the first flying machine. Thanks to these great thinkers, we get to live the life that we are living today. I guess the next leap in human life development is in the hands of our children. Humanity had collected so much data and findings and with the computing power available today, it allows us to simulate models with countless scenarios. With so much information in our hands, the generation to come will use them to make many of our fantasies becoming a reality.
It’s just that today there are so many fields that people can excel in that their inventions are only publicized or known to certain community. So someone needs to invent something like a ‘Warp Drive’ to get a global attention or maybe from beyond our solar system (who knows maybe the Vulcan’s are waiting for human to invent this technology). I just hope that they use the knowledge for the goodness of mankind. So Raidi and Zidani, if you want to invent something, Death Star is out of the question, Millenium Falcon, good. Star Destroyer is a no noo. Invent something useful ok?

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